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NEW LIFE OF MOSES.
BY C. BEADLAUGH
The “Life of Abraham ” was presented to our readers, because, as
the nominal founder of the Jewish race, his position entitled him
to that honour. The “ Life of David,” because, as one of the worst
men and worst kings ever known, his history might afford matter
for reflection to admirers of monarchical institutions and matter for
comment to the advocates of a republican form of government.
The “ Life of Jacob” served to show how basely mean and con
temptibly deceitful a man might become, and yet enjoy God's love.
Having given thus a brief outline of the career of the patriarch, the
king, and the knave, the life of a priest naturally presents itself as
the most fitting to complement the present quadrifid series.
Moses, the great grandson of Levi, was born in Egypt, not far
distant from the banks of the Nile, a river world-famous for its in
undations, made familiar to ordinary readers by the travellers who
have journeyed to discover its source, and held in bad repute by
strangers, especially on account of the carnivorous Saurians who
infest its waters. The mother and father of our hero were both of
the tribe of Levi, and were named Jochebed and Amram. The in
fant Moses was, at the age of three months, placed in an ark of
bulrushes by the river s brink. This was done in order to avoid
the decree of extermination propounded bv the reigning Pharaoh
against the male Jewish children. The daughter of Pharaoh, com
ing down to the river to bathe, found the child and took compas
sion upon him, adopting him as her son. Of the early life of
Moses we have but scanty record. We are told in the New Testa
ment that he was learned in the wisdom of the Egyptians, and
*
that “when he was come to years he refused” by faithf “to be
called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” Perhaps the record from
which the New Testament writers quoted lias been lost; it is certain
that the present version of the Old Testament does not contain
those statements. The record which is lost may have been God’s
original revelation to man, and of which our Bible may be an in
complete version. I am little grieved by the supposition that a
• Acts, c. vii, v. 21,
f Hebrews, c. xi. v. 24.
�2
NEW LIFE OF MOSES.
revelation may have been lost, being, for my own part, more in
clined to think that no revelation has ever been made. Josephus
says that, when quite a baby, Moses trod contemptuously on the
crown of Egypt. The Egyptian monuments and Exodus are both
silent on this point. Josephus also tells us that Moses led the
Egyptians in war against the Ethiopians, and married Tharbis, the
daughter of the Ethiopian monarch. This also is omitted both in
Egyptian history and in the sacred record. When Moses was
grown, according to the Old Testament, or when he was 40 years
of age according to the New, “ it came into his heart to visit his
brethren the children of Israel,” “ And he spied an Egyptian smit
ing an Hebrew;” “And he looked this way and that way, and
when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid
him in the sand.” The New Testament says that he did it, “for
he supposed that his brethren would understand how that God, by
his hand, would deliver them.”* But this is open to the following
objections :—The Old Testament says nothing of the kind;—there
was no man to see the homicide, and as Moses hid the body, it is
hard to conceive how he could expect the Israelites to understand
a matter of which they not only had no knowledge . whatever, but
which he himself did not think was known to them ;—if there were
really no man present, the story of the after accusation against
Moses needs explanation ;—it might be further objected that it does
not appear that Moses at that time did even himself conceive that
he had any mission from God to deliver his people. Moses fled
from the wrath of Pharaoh, and dwelt in Midian, where he married
the daughter of one Reuel or Raguel, or Jethro. This name is not
of much importance, but it is strange that if Moses wrote the books
of the Pentateuch he was not more exact in designating so near a
relation. While acting as shepherd to his father-in-law, “ he led
the flock to the back side of the desert,” and “ the angel of the
Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire that is, the angel was either
a flame, or was the object which was burning, for this angel ap
peared in the midst of a bush which burned with fire, but was not
consumed. This flame appears to have been a luminous one, for
it was a “ great sight,” and attracted Moses, who turned aside to
see it. But the luminosity would depend on substance ignited and
rendered incandescent. Is the angel of the Lord a substanceJsusceptible of ignition and incandesence ? Who knoweth ? If so,
will the fallen angels ingnite and bum in hell ? God called unto
Moses out of the midst of the bush. It is hard to conceive an in
finite God in the middle of a bush, yet as the law of England says
that we must not “deny the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New
Testameut to be of divine authority,” in order not to break
the law, I advise all to believe that, in addition to being in
the middle of a bush, the infinite and all-powerful God also sat
• Aets, c. vii., v. 25.
�NEW LIFE OF MOSES.
on the top of a box, dwelt sometimes in a tent, afterwards in a
temple; although invisible, appeared occasionally; and, being a
spirit without body or parts, was hypostatically incarnate as
a man. Moses, when spoken to by God, “ hid his face, for he was
afraid to look upon God.” If Moses had known that God was
invisible, he would have escaped this fear. God told Moses that
the cry of the children of Israel had reached him, and that he had
come down to deliver them, and that Moses was to lead them out
of Egypt. Moses does not seem to have placed entire confidence
in the phlegomic divine communication, and asked, when the Jews
should question him on the name of the Deity, what answer should
he make ? It does not appear from this that the Jews, if they
had so completely forgotten God’s name, had much preserved the
recollection of the promise comparatively so recently made to
Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. The answer given according to
our version is, “I am that I am;” according to the Douay, “I
am who am.” God, in addition, told Moses that the Jews should
spoil the Egyptians of their wealth; but even this promise of
plunder, so congenial to the nature of a bill-discounting Jew of
the Bible type, did not avail to overcorfie the scruples of Moses.
God therefore taught him to throw his rod on the ground, and
thus transform it into a serpent, from which pseudo-serpent Moses
at first fled in fear, but on his taking it by the tail it resumed its
original shape. Moses, with even other wonders at command,
still hesitated; he had an impediment in his speech. God cured
this by the appointment of Aaron, who was eloquent, to aid his
brother. God directed Moses to return to Egypt, but his parting
words must somewhat have damped the future legislator’s hope of
any speedy or successful ending to his mission. God said, “ I will
harden Pharaoh’s heart that he shall not let the people go.” On
the journey back to Egypt God met Moses “ by the way in the inn,
and sought to kill him.” I am ignorant as to the causes which
prevented the omnipotent Deity from carrying out his intention ;
the text does not explain the matter, and I am not a bishop or a
D.D., and I do not therefore feel justified in putting my assump
tions in place of God’s revelation. Moses and Aaron went t<7
Pharaoh, and asked that the Jew's might be permitted to go three
days’ journey in the wilderness; but the King of Egypt not onlj
refused their request, but gave them additional tasks, and in conse
quence Moses and Aaron went again to the Lord, who told them,
“I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the
name of God Almighty; but by my name Jehovah was I not known
unto them.” Whether God had forgotten that the name Jehovah
was known to Abraham, or whether he was here deceiving Moses
and Aaron, are points the solution of wdiich I leave to the faithful,
referring them to the fact that Abraham called a place Jehovah*
Genesis, c. xxii., v. 14.
�NEW LIFE OF MOSES.
Jireh. After this Moses and Aaron again went to Pharaoh and
worked wonderfully in his presence. Thaumaturgy is coining into
fashion again, but the exploits of Moses far exceeded any of those
performed by Mr. Home or the Davenport Brothers. Aaron flung
down his rod, and it became a serpent; the Egyptian magicians
flung down their rods, which became serpents also; but the rod of
Aaron, as though it had been a Jew money-lender or a tithe col
lecting parson, swallowed up these miraculous competitors, and
the Jewish leaders could afford to laugh at their defeated rival
conjurors. Moses and Aaron carried on the miracle-working for
some time. All the water of the land of Egvpt was turned by
them into blood, but the magicians did so with their enchantments,
and it had no effect on Pharaoh. Then showers of frogs, at the
instance of Aaron, covered the land of Egypt; but the Egyptians
did so with their enchantments, and frogs abounded still more
plentifully. The Jews next tried their hands at the production of
lice, and here—to the glory of God be it said—the infidel Egyp
tians failed to imitate them. It is written that “ cleanliness is
next to godliness,” but we cannot help thinking that godliness must
have been far from cleanliness when the former so soon resulted
in lice. The magicians were now entirely discomfited. The pre
ceding wonders seem to have affected all the land of Egypt; but
in the next miracle the swarms of flies sent were confined to
Egyptians only, and were not extended to Goshen, in which the
Israelites dwelt.
The next plague in connection with the ministration of Moses
and Aaron was that “ all the cattle of Egypt died.” After “all
the cattle ” were dead, a boil was sent, breaking forth with blains
upon man and beast. This failing in effect, Moses afterwards
stretched forth his hand and smote “ both man and beast ” with
hail, then covered the land with locusts, and followed this with a
thick darkness throughout the land—a darkness which might have
been felt. Whether it was felt is a matter on which I am unable
to pass an opinion. After this, the Egyptians being terrified by
the destruction of their first-born children, the Jews, at the in
stance of Moses, borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, jewels
of gold, and raiment; and they spoiled the Egyptians. The fact
is, that the Egyptians were in the same position as the payers of
church rates, tithes, vicars’ rates, and Easter dues : they lent to
the Lord’s people, who are good borrowers, but slow when repay
*
ment is required. They prefer promising you a crown of glory
to paying you at once five shillings in silver.
Moses led th«
Jews through the Red Sea, which proved a ready means of escape,
as may be easily read in Exodus, which says that the Lord “ made
the sea dry land ” for the Israelites, and afterwards not only over
whelmed in it the Egyptians who sought to follow them, but, as
Josephus tells us, the current of the sea actually carried to the camp
of the Hebrews the arms of the Egyptians, so that the wandering
�NW LIFE OF MOSES.
6
Jews might not be destitute of weapons. After this the Israelites
were led by Moses into Sliur, where they were without water for three
days, and the water they afterwards found was too bitter to drink
until a tree had been cast into the well. The Israelites were then fed
with manna, which, when gathered on Friday, kept for the Sabbath,
but rotted if kept from one week day to another.
The people
grew tired of eating manna, and complained, and God sent fire I
amongst them and burned them up in the uttermost parts of the
camp; and after this the people wept and said, “ Who shall give us
flesh to eat? We remember the fish we did eat in Egypt freely;
the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and
the garlic; but now there is nothing at all beside this manna
before our eyes.’’ This angered the Lord, and he gave them a
feast of quails, and while the flesh was yet between their teeth,
ere it was chewed, the anger of the Lord was kindled, and he
smote the Jewish people with a very great plague.
*
The people
again in Rephidim were without water, and Moses therefore smote
the Rock of Horeb with his rod, and water came out of the rock.
At Rephidim the Amalekites and the Jews fought together, and
while they fought Moses, like a prudent general, went to the top of
a hill, accompanied by Aaron and Hur, and it came to pass that
when Moses held up his hands Israel prevailed, and when he let
down his hands Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands w’ere heavy,
and they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat thereon,
and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side
and the other ou the other side, and his hands were steady until
the going down of the sun, and Joshua discomfited Amalek, and
his people with the edge of the sword. How the true believer
ought to rejoice that the stone was so convenient, as otherwise the
Jews might have been slaughtered, and there might have been no
royal line of David, no Jesus, no Christianity. That stone should
be more valued than the precious black stone of the Moslem; it
is the corner-stone of the system, the stone which supported the
Mosaic rule. God is everywhere, but Moses went up unto him,
and the Lord called to him out of a mountain and came to him in a
thick cloud, and descended on Mount Sinai in a fire, in consequence
of which the mountain smoked, and the Lord came down upon the
top of the mountain and called Moses up to him; and then the
Lord gave Moses the Ten Commandments, and also those pre
cepts which follow, in which Jews are permitted to buy their fellowcountrymen for six years, and in which it is provided that, if the
slave-master shall give his six-year slave a wife, and she bear him
sons or daughters, that the wife and the children shall be the pro
perty of her master. In these precepts it is also permitted that a
man may sell his own daughter for the most base purposes. Also
that a master may beat his slave, so that if he do not die until a
• Numbers, c. xi.
�6
NEW LIFE OF MOSES.
few days after the ill-treatment, the master shall escape justice be
cause the slave is his money. Also that Jews may buy strangers
and keep them as slaves for ever. While Moses was up in the
mount the people clamoured for Aaron to make them gods. Moses
had stopped away so long that the people gave him up for lost.
Aaron, whose duty it was to have pacified and restrained them, and
to have kept them in the right faith, did nothing of the kind. He
induced them to bring all their gold, and then made it into a calf,
before which he built an altar, and then proclaimed a feast. Man
ners and customs change. In those days the Jews did see the
God that. Aaron took their gold for, but now the priests take the
people’s gold, and the poor contributors do not even see a calf for
their pains, unless indeed they are near a mirror at the time when
they are making their voluntary contributions. And the Lord told
Moses what happened, and said, “ I have seen this people, and
behold it is a stiffnecked people. Now, therefore, let me alone
that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may
consume them.” Moses would not comply with God’s request,
but remonstrated, and expostulated, and begged him not to afford
the Egyptians an opportunity of speaking against him. Moses
succeeded in changing the unchangeable, and the Lord repented
of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.
Although Moses would not let God’s “ wrath wax hot ” his own
“ anger waxed hot,” and he broke in his rage, the two tables of
stone which God had given him, and on which the Lord had graven
and written with his own finger. We have now no means of know
ing in what language God wrote, or whether Moses afterwards
took any pains to rivet together the broken pieces. It is almost
to be wondered at that the Christian Evidence Societies have not
sent missionaries to search for these pieces of the tables, which may
even yet remain beneath the mount. Moses took the calf which
they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder,
and strewed it upon water and made the children of Israel drink
of it. After this Moses armed the priests and killed 3,000 Jew's,
“ and the Lord plagued the people because they had made the
calf which Aaron had made.”* Moses afterwards pitched the ta
bernacle without the camp; and the cloudy pillar in which the
Lord w'ent, descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle;
and the Lord talked to Moses “ face to face, as a man would to
his friend.”f And the Lord then told Moses, “ Thou canst not
see my face, for there shall no man see me and live.”J Before
this Moses and Aaron and Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the
elders of Israel, “ saw the God of Israel, and there w'as under his
feet, as it were, a paved work of sapphire stone, . . . and
Upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand;
also they saw God, and did eat and drink.Ӥ
* Exodus, c. xxxii., v. 35.
f c. xxxiii., v. 11.
J v. 20.
§ c. xxiv., v. 9.
�NEW LIFE OF MOSES.
7
Aaron., the brother of Moses, died under very strange circum
stances. The Lord said unto Moses, “ Strip Aaron of his garments
and put them upon Eleazar, his son, and Aaron shall be gathered
unto his people and shall die there.” And Moses did as the Lord
commanded, and Aaron died there on the top of the mount, where
Moses had taken him. There does not appear to have been any
coroner’s inquest in the time of Aaron, and the suspicious circum
stances of the death of the brother of Moses have been passed over
by the faithful.
When Moses was leading the Israelites near Moab, Balak the
King of the Moabites sent to Balaam in order to get Balaam to
curse the Jews. When Balak’s messengers were with Balaam,
God came to Balaam also, and asked what men they were. Of
course God knew, but he inquired for his own wise purposes, and
Balaam told him truthfully. God ordered Balaam not to curse the
Jews, and therefore the latter refused, and sent the Moabitish
messengers away. Then Balak sent again high and mighty princes
under whose influence Balaam went mounted on an ass, and God’s
anger was kindled against Balaam, and he sent an angel to stop
him by the way; but the angel did not understand his business
well, and the ass first ran into a field, and then close against the
wall, and it was not until the angel removed to a narrower place
that he succeeded in stopping the donkey ; and when the ass saw
the angel she fell down. Balaam did not see the angel at first; and,
Indeed, we may take it as a fact of history that asses have always
been the most ready to perceive angels.
Moses may have been a great author, but we have little
means of ascertaining what he wrote in the present day. Divines
talk of Genesis to Deuteronomy as the five books of Moses,
but Eusebius, in the fourth century, attributed them to Ezra,
*
and Saint Chrysostom says that the name of Moses has been
affixed to the books without authority, by persons living long after
him.f It is quite certain that if Moses lived 3,300 years ago,
he did not write in square letter Hebrew, and this because the
character has not existed so long. It is indeed doubtful if it can
be carried back 2,000 years. The ancient Hebrew character, though
probably older than this, yet is comparatively modern amongst the
ancient languages of the earth.
°
It is urged by orthodox chronologists that Moses was born about
1450 B.c., and that the Exodus took place about 1491 b.c. Unfor
tunately “ there are no recorded dates in the Jewish Scripture^
that are trustworthy.” Moses, or the Hebrews, not being mentioned
upon Egyptian monuments from the twelfth to the seventeenth
century b.c. inclusive, and never being alluded to by any extant
writer who lived prior to the Septuagint translation at Alexandria
�NEW LIFE OF MOSES.
(commencing in the third century b.c.), there are no extraneous
aids, from sources alien to the Jewish Books, through which any
information, worthy of historical acceptance, can be gathered else
where about him or them.”*
Moses died in the land of Moab when he was 120 years of age.
The Lord buried Moses in a valley of Moab, over against Bethpeor,
but no man knowetli of his sepulchre unto this day. Josephus says
that “ a cloud came over him on the sudden and he disappeared in
a certain valley.” The devil disputed about the body of Moses,
contending with the Archangel Michael ;f but whether the devil or
the angel had the best of the discussion, the Bible does not tell us.
De Beauvoir Priaulx,J looking at Moses as a counsellor, leader,
and legislator, says:—“Invested with this high authority, he
announced to the Jews their future religion, and announced it to
them as a state religion, and as framed for a particular state, and
that state only. He gave this religion, moreover, a creed so nar
row and negative—he limited it to objects so purely temporal, he
crowded it with observances so entirely ceremonial or national—
that we find it difficult to determine whether Moses merely estab
lished this religion in order that by a community of worship he
might induce in the tribe-divided Israelites that community of
sentiment which would constitute them a nation; or, whether he
only roused them to a sense of their national dignity, in the hope
that they might then more faithfully perform the duties of priests
and servants of Jehovah. In other words, we hesitate to decide
whether in the mind of Moses the state was subservient to the pur
poses of religion, or religion to the purposes of state.”
The same writer observes§ that, according to the Jewish writings,
Moses “ is the friend and favourite of the Deity. He is one whose
prayers and wishes the Deity hastens to fulfil, one to whom the
Deitv makes known his designs. The relations between God and
the prophet are most intimate. God does not disdain to answer
the questions of Moses, to remove his doubts, and even occasionally
to receive his suggestions, and to act upon them even in opposition
to his own pre-determined decrees.”
* G R. Gliddon’s Types of Mankind: Mankind’s Chronology, p 711
f Jude, v. 9
J Quesliones Mosaicae, p. 438.
§ p. 418.
PRICE ONE PENNY.
London: Printed by Annib Besavt and 0 hables Beadlaugh,
63, Fleet Street, E.O
�
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Victorian Blogging
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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New life of Moses
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Bradlaugh, Charles [1833-1891]
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 8 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references. Date of publication from Champion of liberty (Bradlaugh Centenary, 1933), bibliography. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
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Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh
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[1861]
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N100
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Bible
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (New life of Moses), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Moses (Biblical Leader)
NSS